Fergie Embraces Haters on ‘Double Dutchess’ and Comes Out Stronger

Fergie‘s first solo album, 2006’s The Dutchess, saw not one but three Billboard Hot 100 number 1 singles: “London Bridge,” “Glamorous,” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” Fans, rabid as they can be, have wondered, often publicly, when the singer would follow up her solo debut with a new release.

In the teaser trailer for her long awaited sophomore album/visual album Double Dutchess, which arrives Sept. 22, Fergie decided to include some of those communications in an effort to embrace the haters and empower herself to give her all to the new project.

“I’m not a negative person. I’m all about positivity and trying to exclude the negative noise like fear,” Fergie says. “So that, for me felt kind of weird — putting them out there and embracing it — and it became my fuel actually. Negative things being said brought out the fight inside of me and brought out my Rocky Balboa.”

“I don’t usually acknowledge anything negative, but I wanted to put it out there because I felt like, ‘Do people know that I’m a human being and I hear all this and I see all this?’ I didn’t even put the worst ones!”

Although there were negative undertones to some of the messages that Fergie received leading up to the new release, she does understand that there was genuine fandom and a craving for new music behind (most of) them as well.

“In this day and age, I am so blessed that people care,” Fergie laughed. “And I just really wanted to make it worth the wait. That’s why I did a video for every song. It’s a very ambitious thing and it took way longer than I thought it was going to.”